Jerry for Governor (Again)

I just caught the last few minutes of an interview with California Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate (and former mayor, and former governor, ...) Jerry Brown. I like the guy already.

The interviewer asked Brown what he's learned since his first term as governor in the 1970's. He gave two answers:

1. When he was younger, he didn't appreciate the importance of each "personality" in the legislature. You can't ram your ideas through; you have to work with people -- individually -- to succeed.
2. He's learned that having good ideas isn't enough; you have to understand how to implement them, step by step.

Meanwhile, Meg Whitman, his main opponent in the gubernatorial race at this point, is sounding off with a message we heard from Governor Schwarzenegger when he first ran several years ago: we need a "business perspective." It's time to bring in someone untainted by any political experience to tell those children in Sacramento what to do, to sweep away the old and bring in the new. But it hasn't worked out that way, has it?

California is completely paralyzed by what I like to call "good idea politics," by which I mean: I and a few of my friends think ponies for kids with terminal cancer would be a good idea, so we have 10 or 12 people sign a petition to get an initiative on the statewide ballot. A few months and a couple of celebrity endorsements later, and 7% of all gas tax revenue collected from lumber magnates in suburban areas who drive cars making no more than 27 miles per gallon has been constitutionally earmarked to buy ponies for dying children. Wash, rinse, and repeat several hundred times, and you get the constitutional and legislative state of affairs in California. Who would I want wading into that morass to serve my interests: the guy with more years of experience at it than I have years on this earth, who knows everyone and understands the importance of working with them to get the job done, or the newbie who thinks she can order people around on the basis of her position and personality and everything will turn out OK?